Bethune, James Gray

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Peter Ennals, “BETHUNE, JAMES GRAY,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/bethune_james_gray_7E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Businessman, office holder, jp, and militia officer; b. 1 April 1793 in Williamstown, Upper Canada, son of John Bethune and Véronique Waddens; m. 4 Feb. 1830 Martha Covert, and they had a daughter who died in infancy; d. 13 Oct. 1841 in Rochester, N.Y., and was buried in Cobourg, Upper Canada.
    • James Gray Bethune was the fourth son of the Reverend John Bethune, a prominent loyalist. About 1812, after attending John Strachan’s school at Cornwall, he took up residence in the frontier hamlet of Hamilton (Cobourg) on the north shore of Lake Ontario. By 1817 he had opened a store, built a sawmill, was operating a distillery, and had been appointed first postmaster of Hamilton, a function he carried out in his store until 1834. As a merchant-storekeeper Bethune endured where others failed because he was able to forge a solid mercantile connection with Montreal merchants through his brother Norman, a well-placed merchant and forwarder there. But it is also clear that Bethune was an aggressive and innovative businessman who championed the economic development of the Newcastle District, and particularly trade connections through Cobourg to its hinterland.
    • More important was his determination to develop better facilities for transportation between Cobourg and the back country. In 1827, he was a leading force in the establishment of the Cobourg harbour committee (incorporated in 1829 as the Cobourg Harbour Company), serving as its treasurer. In 1832 he began the first steamboat service on Rice Lake and the Otonabee River. A year later he opened large warehouses at Peterborough and Cobourg, launched a steamboat on Chemung Lake (north of Peterborough), and was active in having a bridge built across the Trent River, probably at the present-day village of Hastings.
    • Bethune’s commercial zeal and irrepressible appetite for internal improvement schemes made him a prominent and admired man in the district. As a brother of the respected Anglican cleric at Cobourg, Alexander Neil Bethune, and as a justice of the peace and a commissioner in the district Court of Requests, he was also a trusted figure. 
  • Son of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=565
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/269104695/james-gray-bethune